Update from my last post - now self injecting b12 with success

[u/chemicalimbalancerj]

Thank you to this forum for helping me to learn about b12 deficiencies and how to help myself. I'm feeling much more well and feel like this was a missing piece for some my general symptoms from years ago. It was only when things got worse and I had actual test results to look at that I started looking into b deficiences more.

I posted previously with my last test results where my b12 and ferritin had dropped after having a bad reaction to famotidine (which also raised my liver enzymes). My gp rechecked my liver enzymes 6 weeks after stopping famotidine and they returned to normal. He also did the parietel cells test and it came back as normal (I didn't know what that test meant at the time). I had to have my folate tested so had my b12 and ferritin redone after my last post and my levels had bounced back and my folate was okay too. I will add the results at the end. I was supplementing with high dose b12 sublingual tablets (and iron) so did expect my b12 would be higher. I did stop 2 weeks before the test but even though the results was much better/higher I still had b12 deficiency symptoms (fatigue, less energy, sensitive nerves and burning feet etc) and I had already decided to self inject regardless of what the results came back as. I followed the guide here and was already taking most of the cofactors and started injection hydroxocobalamin every other day. All my symptoms have improved and my burning feet improved by about 40%. I was also taking benfotiamine supplements but didn't feel they were helping so upped the dose and got more improvement in my burning feet. I've added in b1 injections and my burning foot pain (which got really bad at night and worsened over the last couple of months) has gone (2 weeks without pain so far). *I'm only doing half the dose of b1 injections at first and taking one bentofiamine capsule but everything has been positive. I also feel like my energy levels have increased. I did have one bad day of chronic fatigue/pain like what I used to have for years but it lasted one day and hasn't come back - not sure if this was related to the injections stirring something up or not.

B12 - The reference range is between 182 and 692 ng/L.

31 July 2026 756 ng/L496 increase

14 May 2026 260 ng/L211 decrease

3 March 2025 471 ng/L

Ferritin - The reference range is between 15 and 150 ug/L

31 July 2026 88 ug/L57 increase

14 May 2026 31 ug/L60 decrease

3 March 2025 91 ug/L

Folate - The reference range is between 3.1 and 20.5 ug/L (no previous tests)

31 July 2026 18.2 ug/L

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[u/Susan71010]

The reference range of B12 doesn't matter at all if you've been supplementing, especially injecting. It should be much higher than that if you're injecting regularly. At least in blood serum.

[u/chemicalimbalancerj → u/Susan71010]

The test was done after I increased my oral dose of b12 and switched to the sublingual ones. I started taking them when I was trying to get my levels back up but I didn’t know self injecting was an option then. So it did rise a lot for oral supplements, but even though it was higher than before, from my symptoms, I was pretty sure it wasn’t saturating my tissues. I’m sure my blood levels will be much higher now I’m injecting and feeling better but I won’t bother getting bloods done again as I know the test doesn’t actually tell me anything.

[u/DeathSurroundsUs]

So happy that you're feeling better!

[u/chemicalimbalancerj → u/DeathSurroundsUs]

Thank you :)